The Vanishing Act of Esme LennoxThis is a story that revolves around two people; Iris, who is single and has a married lover, and Esme, a woman around sixty who has spent most of her life in an asylum. Other major characters include Kitty, Esme's sister, and Alex, Iris' half-brother. The story jumps from one person's thoughts to another's, and sometimes it's hard to figure who is thinking or saying what.
The basic background is that Esme was left alone with her baby brother and a servant, and both those two died and Esme was alone with the bodies for three days.
Although she already had a tendency to somewhat unbalanced thinking, this event worsened it, and she was admitted to an asylum when she was only 16. In the present day, the place is closing down and Iris, as a relative, is called to find out what she wants done with Esme.
Something terrible had happened to Esme before being put in the asylum, though, and it also contributes to her unbalanced mental state.
The story jumps from present time to past and around and around, spending a lot of time on Kitty, when she was young, trying to get a husband.
Iris has Esme stay with her for a while, and one day Esme says she wants to go to the nursing home to visit her sister, who is there.
Therein lies the problem, at least in my opinion. I liked the book until I got to the last couple of pages. I found the ending to be quite unsatisfying. Basically, it's a depressing book with a severely depressing ending.
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